Amazing mod; incessant CTDs

Long term EB fanboy here. Just started playing EBII this morning. Love it. So much so that I keep playing in spite of suffering CTDs about every other turn, usually after clicking the end turn button or when loading a battle.

Browsed the forum and this seems to be unusual. I did disable windowed screen, which I heard can cause CTDs. Is this true? Because playing windowed isn't even an option for me. The window remains tiny (occupying about a third of my monitor) regardless of what I set the resolution at.

Thanks EB team.

Windowed mode is a lot more stable, and a possible cause of your persistent CTDs is precisely because you're not using it. Change the resolution in [M2TW]\medieval2.preferences.cfg to match whatever the native resolution of your screen is, and it will be fullscreen. You may need to set the file to Read Only afterwards, to prevent the change being overwritten.

I think there may be entries in his EBII CFG file that overrule his vanilla cfg file. Making that one read only will not help in this case - it's not advisable in the first place as it will disable permanent changes via the option screens.

Open the EB CFG file with Notepad and copy it's content here for us to check.

EDIT: Sorry, I am OP. That was an old User ID.

medieval2.preference.cfg only has four lines:
[video]
widescreen=1
[game]
allusers=1



ebii.cfg:
[features]
mod = mods/EBII
editor = 1

[log]
to = logs/M2TW.system.log.txt
level = * trace

[video]
movies = 1
windowed = 1
borderless_window = 1

[misc]
show_hud_date = 1
display_error_on_exit = 1

[io]
file_first = 1
disable_file_cache = 1

[game]
allusers = 1
unlimited_men_on_battlefield = 1
advisor_verbosity = 1
blind_advisor = 0
mute_advisor = 1

[multiplayer]
playable = 0
factions = 1

[hotseat]
passwords = 0 ## use individual passwords for players
turns = 0 ## force separate human faction turns (including diplomacy) in hotseat campaign
autoresolve_battles = 1 ## force autoresolve for all battles in hotseat campaign
disable_console = 0 ## disable console in hotseat campaign.
disable_papal_elections = 1 ## disable voting in papal elections in hotseat campaign (only first valid human faction votes)
save_prefs = 1 ## force relevant hotseat options to be saved with game.
save_config = 1 ## save config file in save dir containing information about next players turn
update_ai_camera = 1 ## enable camera updates during ai turn in hotseat campaign
validate_diplomacy = 1 ## enable diplomacy validation for incoming propositions
scroll = 0 ## show start turn scroll in hotseat campaign
admin_password = password ## specify password for administrator access to the dev console when console disabled. Change 'password' to a suitable password
autosave = 1 ## autosave hotseat game at start of players turn
close_after_save = 0 ## close medieval II directly after a hotseat autosave
gamename = hotseat_gamename ## sub directory name for hotseat save games
validate_data = 1 ## ensure game data files used in previous save match current campaign data files
allow_validation_failures = 0 ## prevent game to load if savegame or data validations fail

1. Your medieval CFG file should be miles long. Remove it (make a back up) so a new one can be generated.
2. The EBII CFG file is set neutral as to the windowed option (no fixed resolution there). Try starting your mod again after you have done point 1, set your resolution in video options to the resolution of your desktop.

If you still have problems, then put a hash ( # ) in front of the windowed = 1 line of the EBII CFG file.


Rule of thumb: never make your vanilla CFG file read only or edit by hand (read only disables the save of changes via regular options and editing manually doesn't last without making read only) - do all the changes in your mod's CFG file.

Originally Posted by Gigantus

Rule of thumb: never make your vanilla CFG file read only or edit by hand (read only disables the save of changes via regular options and editing manually doesn't last without making read only) - do all the changes in your mod's CFG file.

That's only necessary if you play other mods. I don't (nor do I play vanilla M2TW), so ensuring most of my basic options are correct for EBII in the M2TW cfg, and setting it to read-only is fine.

Originally Posted by TWFanatic

Did as you said.

1. A new medieval CFG is not generated. However, deleting it seems to have solved the problem of my settings resetting to default every time I restart the game.
2. Seemingly without cause, I can't turn windowed mode on anymore! This problem predates deleting the CFG file. Whether windowed mode is 0 or 1, or has the hashtag or doesn't, it never activates.

Are you positive? No new medieval2.preferences.cfg file in the Medieval II Total War root folder? Because that is a new one for me - whenever I managed to mess up my vanilla CFG file I simply deleted it. It would then get generated with default values at the next game start, meaning if you have started a campaign\custom battle and exited it would be there. Which version of the game do you have (Steam, Gold, Pyramid)?

Originally Posted by QuintusSertorius

That's only necessary if you play other mods. I don't (nor do I play vanilla M2TW), so ensuring most of my basic options are correct for EBII in the M2TW cfg, and setting it to read-only is fine.

If you do not play other mods then it's fine to 'fix' your vanilla cfg file with the values you want outside the values you can set via options. That isn't the case very often, hence my recommendation. On the other hand some mods have a huge load of presets that override otherwise manual settings like resolution or unit size which can be irritating if they are not suitable to your set up.

Originally Posted by Gigantus

Are you positive? No new medieval2.preferences.cfg file in the Medieval II Total War root folder? Because that is a new one for me - whenever I managed to mess up my vanilla CFG file I simply deleted it. It would then get generated with default values at the next game start, meaning if you have started a campaign\custom battle and exited it would be there. Which version of the game do you have (Steam, Gold, Pyramid)?

Yep, quite sure. No new CFG when deleted. It seems to revert solely to the EB CFG.

Pretty sure I'm running gold. Definitely not steam or pyramid.

The main problem is it won't run in windowed mode at all now, regardless of whether its set to 1 or 0 in EB CFG file.

Did as you said.

1. A new medieval CFG is not generated. However, deleting it seems to have solved the problem of my settings resetting to default every time I restart the game.
2. Seemingly without cause, I can't turn windowed mode on anymore! This problem predates deleting the CFG file. Whether windowed mode is 0 or 1, or has the hashtag or doesn't, it never activates.

OK got windowed mode working again by deleting the Appdata/local/SEGA/M2TW folder.

Med 2 pref CFG regenerated, I changed teh resolution, and it worked!

Time to see if it stops crashing. Thanks for all your help Gigantus.

I got to remember the appdata folder - no idea since when or in what version the game does stuff in there. As if the virtual store wasn't bad enough ...

Yep.

So it's working great. ~258 BC Sweboz campaign and only 2 CTDs thus far. THanks again.